Reasons and circumstances that lead to the non-use of media by young people and their families

Abstract

This article argues for the need to pay attention to the dynamics of refusing and rejecting the use of media to better understand a highly mediatized consumer society. The theoretical background utilizes resistance to the media, family contexts of socialisation and mediated society. We analysed 18 interviews carried out in Portugal – undertaken as part of wider research project involving 40 young people and their families, on their relationship with the media regarding citizenship rights –, which showed signs of non-use of media. This article characterises these individuals, their contexts and motives. Through identifying refusal of the internet, social networks, news and television, we arrive at distinct five types: “I do not like and I do not want to use”; “At this stage of life, no!”; “Split between I can’t have and I can’t buy it”; “I don’t want to draw attention to myself and don’t want to get ‘hooked’”; and “Doing something different and doing it better”.